Uranus and Neptune

[scotastro]

Hi all, just been out hunting Uranus and Neptune which are nicely placed.

Uranus is in Aquarius and is 4 deg W of phi Aqr. At +5.7 mag it is an easy object in 7x50 bins. Scopes will show a pale blue disc at 120x or more.

Neptune is in Capricornus and a little more difficult being +7.8 mag. To locate it find the line of 3 stars 45, 44, 42 Cap which are 2 deg N of Delta Cap; Neptune is a little below and right of 42 Cap. In my dark skies by 1.00am it was easy to spot in 7x50 bins. In a scope the disc at 150x is much smaller than Uranus and slightly greenish.

Mike

GAC

Galloway Astronomy Centre

www.gallowayastro.com

[NickH]

Here's a Uranus shot from a C8 I took a few years back, at F40. They are indeed well placed now...all we need is some clear sky

The image has been increased by 400% using CS2, applied a light guassian blur and neat image to reduce pixel noise, the lasso around the image (circular) and feathered to smooth it out.

in case you're wondering.

Posted an original of this at the time, with a collection of the whole Solar system I had been working on for a few years..

Love imaging the outer planets.. hoping to get the C11 on em if this so***ing weather ever abates

(click to enlarge)

[russ]

Out last night having a look at this pair. Not the best of nights with a nearly full moon nearby Neptune. And probably needed to wait a little longer into the night for Uranus. But myself and Rob were dead keen to see this pair.

I've been observing 25 years now and i'm ashamed to say i've never searched out Neptune....period! And only seen Uranus once and that was back in 1988.

Using Skyscan (how lame) we picked up Neptune in the Skymax 150. At lowish power only it's colour gave it away at first glance. With the mag at 90x it was still star like but somehow you could tell it wasn't. We then piled on the mags to 400x and ended with a tiny disk. Absolutely wonderful, both so chuffed to see it. 2 Arc Minutes is incredibly small but satisfying to see it neverless.

We had to wait a further 30mins for Uranus as it was stuck behind a tree. But we a got a first glimpse of it through the finder, shining on/off through the leaves. Again the colour is obvious and also the lack of twinkling. In the scope the disk was immediately apparent, all be it tiny. The same high mags weren't needed with the 10mm Elite at 180x showing a nice little disk.

Well worth searching these two out. Without GOTO in a moonlit murky sky Neptune will be a real challenge. But Uranus should be much easier.

Russ

[Paul G. Abel]

Lovely lovely lovely...Now you must sketch it to get the full benifit!

[Carl]

Lovely lovely lovely...Now you must sketch it to get the full benifit!

wouldn`t be very hard just a blue circle colured in blue lol but yer m8 cracking image i wondered what the OP loooks like through a "cheap" telescope i mean like not these huge £100000 pro type ones.

More please